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Friday, October 23, 2015

Art Fart Friday: Ooops! I Arted, p.2

This post was originally intended to be posted on Friday, 16 October, but I couldn't find my pictures, then I ran some errands, then I started a party that couldn't be stopped. I've done even more art in the meantime but I guess I've got to backtrack some just to keep up. Yes, let us move backwards in order to move forwards. Regression is progress, after all.

Before I get on to the art, I'd just like to say: I do not like fart jokes or potty humor, in general. Occasionally, it can be funny, but not that funny and only very occasionally. On the other hand, I love rhyming and alliteration, but hate the phrase "artsy farsty", which was the jumping off point for this series title. Also, I don't really think I contribute much to the art world and feel very uncomfortable calling myself an artist (or writer or air force brat or woman or punk or geek or any other identification term)., but I needed a title for this series of posts (Art Fart Friday) and the other series of posts (Ooops! I Arted) and this seemed clever or at least made me chuckle. And I just felt the need to clarify that as I spent a large junk of my last Art Fart Friday post talking about how hilarious the word "balls" is. On to the art!

Look ART!

And, if you remember, The Ooops! I Arted series features pieces that I'd done previously but were very drab and said pencil sketches with no life or expression. Again, I worked this piece before I thought of the blog series so the best I can manage for a before image is the gohst image that shows on the back of the page.

In case that's too difficult to see, here's a photoshopped version of the original drawing.

Yeah, my photoshopping skills and my drawing skills are pretty much on par. So as you can see my original drawing was some weird triangle girl with hearts. She had no crown but I can only assume I was making some queen of hearts or other playing card reference. There were mother scribbles on the page like poorly drawn butterflies, lips, and just general randomness. I was obviously inspired by purely by the Queen of Hearts and Alice and Wonderland bit.

The Queen of Hearts is not my favorite Alice in Wonderland character, I prefer the Mad Hatter, March Hare, or Cheshire Cat, but I'm still drawn again and again to her imagery. I've had more than one piece of work inspired by her. It was easy to pull things together, I just took out everything card and/or heart related and honestly, it came together like a dream.

Early layout test where some of the original sketch is still visible

I started with a thin coat of gesso, since I planned on using acrylics for the background but I still wanted to see the original sketching below as a guide. I used a combination of Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Red acrylic paints mixed with matte medium, being sure to leave plenty of brush marks and ridges to add interest. I followed with pigment ink in black, being sure it caught on the ridges, and wiping away the excess. I took a small bit of plastic grid and used it as a stencil with some modeling paste to add texture and dimension randomly on the page. I also used a stamp on the right side, a sort of fleur-de-lis flourish, to amp up even more interest.

Other elements on the page include: a silver and red heart charm (with loop removed), a piece of distressed card stock with a 3-D heart sticker + flourish, self-adhesive translucent red raindrops (that look like blood), and a mini playing card, altered from a piece of card stock.

The Red Queen is made with layered tissue paper, the red layered with hand drawn hearts, printed card stock under the skirt and tights, black netting, a heart charm, an abstract red and gold heart bead, a piece of doily, book paper, reflective red card stock, and a playing card embellishment I've had for ages and just happened to display a heart royal flush making it perfect for a crown when laid on a bit of gold doily.

My favorite part of this art journal page is the text.

Testing the text in a handwritten version. Also note the rejected heart elements lying around the workspace, making art is a messy business.

Art journaling is suppose to combine art and journals or diaries. Lots of people use them for therapy, differently than just making art, in the same way that many people keep written journals and diaries as therapy as well. However, when you watch videos and tutorials, most of the text expresses something bland and cliche, like "remember this moment" or "live, laugh, love". I mean, I suppose that may express somebody's emotions on a daily basis but I've never written anything like that in a journal. Most of my diaries are full of "fuck's" and "bullshit", vitriol and depression. So, while I pasting and placing and waiting for glue to try, I tried to think of what I should use for text.

I wanted to use something from Alice in Wonderland, in general, but specifically the Queen of Hearts if I could. However, like I said, most of my favorite lines are spoken by other characters and wouldn't really work on the page. I decided on "Off with his head!", even though it felt like a quite obvious choice. I went ahead planning where to put the words and how to make the text look (ie, stamped, handwriting, ransom style from different magazines, etc) but I kept dropping shit while I was working, a pair of scissors there, a pencil here, tiny little cut out hearts all over the damn place.... it was mad frustrating. By the time it came to writing out the text I was all full of vinegar and fuck's again. I decided on "Off with the MotherFucker's Head" because in my usage "motherfucker" is far worse than any other version of fuck. For example, I would not have been as happy with "Off with his Fucking Head" because I felt like if you were gonna say fuck that would be the expected way.

Take another look at it's full glory!

I'm very, very happy with this page. After the tissue paper page before it, it's the first page of my new experimental idea/art journal and an excellent example of burgeoning aesthetic and artistic skills. I think I'm especially proud because I took something that looked childish and lame, art I'd made but hated, and made it into something I loved.

What about you? Have you got some art, some writing you despise that you can transform? Think on it and ....